Sat 4 Apr 2009
Garden of the Gods, part 2
Posted by Ken Atherton under vacation
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Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background, as seen from the visitor center. This panorama didn’t come out as well as I hoped, but it gives you a good overview of the park. I was using our point-and-shoot camera, and it blew out the highlights on the right side.
When I was growing up, I went camping several times in an area of the Shawnee National Forest called Garden of the Gods. I always enjoyed visiting that place and exploring the various rock formations, but I was mystified when other people would assume I had been to Colorado when I told them about going there.
As it turns out, despite my apparently sheltered upbringing, the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs is the far more famous site. It was donated to the city of Colorado Springs by one Charles Eliot Perkins (that’s the second time the name Perkins has come up on this trip — we have to research the possible family connection) under the condition that the city never charges admission and does not alter the land in any way other than the bare minimum to make it sustainable.
It’s quite a sight. Apparently much of the front range of Colorado has this deep red sandstone buried underneath it, but there are not that many places where it can be seen, and fewer still where it can be seen in such a spectacular fashion. The pressure exerted by the mountain range in the distance has forced the red stone out of the ground and into the air at strange angles.
The park has attracted millions of people over the years and is probably one of the most photographed natural phenomena in the world. On bright sunny days the colors are spectacular and at the right times the rocks can be used to frame other natural phenomena such as the rising full moon.
We arrived in Colorado Springs in the late afternoon on Monday, which unfortunately, was not the best day for photography or even for walking outside. It was mostly cloudy and very cold, especially anytime we got up above the floor of the park when the winds picked up, but the rocks were still impressive.
We were also impressed by the amount of wildlife in the park. We saw rabbits, several different bird species, and deer — none of which seemed the least disturbed by our presence. I almost stepped on one of the rabbits while trying to photograph something else.
This is a stereogram of one of the smaller odd-angled rock formations jutting up from the ground. You should cross your eyes to make the image appear in 3D. I’ve added two white dots at the bottom to help you judge when the images overlap properly. This one definitely looks better in the larger version, so click to view the picture full size.
Local Tags: carissa, celia, Colorado, colorado springs, garden of the gods, ken, panorama, sadie, sandi, spring, stereogram, stereophotography, vacation
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